Stephen King

Ann22

eoin wrote: »

I can't understand the fuss over Salems Lot. I re-read it last year and thought it was pretty average. And on the slip side, I thought the Tommyknockers was a great book.

The Dark Half is a good one that's not mentioned too often, and I really liked The Dead Zone too.

I thought Salem's Lot was so scary! I've read it 3 times. I'm from the generation that was traumatised by the 70s mini series..so I found this book especially good. Very few images as disturbing to me as

Danny Glick in his funeral suit tapping at the window:eek:

The Tommyknockers was good as far as I remember and I think I enjoyed the The Dark Half though I don't know if I'd ever read either of them again actually..(I thought The Dark Half was very Dean Kootnzish).
It's all a matter of taste though. If we all liked the same books there'd be no variety.

Spiritoftheseventies

One of the few books I didnt read was Salems lot.

sxt

Have you read Pet Semetary?-Not one of his most popular books.but one of his best in my opinion-lighthearted,funny,forboding, and very macabre. One of his books that you an re read and get a completely differnent experience from the book.

dr gonzo

cassiusclay wrote: »

Good storyteller bad writer.

sxt wrote: »

A bad writer could not be a good storyteller

I think he means that SK is very imaginative but not a great writer, at least thats what i think he means because thats how i feel about what ive read of SK so far. For such a famous author ive been completely underwhelmed by nearly everything of his ive read. In fact a bunch of them i thought were pure sh1te like Pet Semetary and Cell.

In saying that i havent read nearly enough of his stuff to speak about him as an author in general. A lot of you are saying that IT is great, would that be representative of his best work? because if thats the case ill read that one before i make up my mind.

Eoin

dr gonzo wrote: »

. For such a famous author ive been completely underwhelmed by nearly everything of his ive read. In fact a bunch of them i thought were pure sh1te like Pet Semetary and Cell.

In saying that i havent read nearly enough of his stuff to speak about him as an author in general. A lot of you are saying that IT is great, would that be representative of his best work? because if thats the case ill read that one before i make up my mind.

The Stand is probably considered his best book by a lot of fans. But if you thought Pet Semetary was "pure sh1te", I'm not sure you'll get much out of any of his books.

Incidentally, what horror or even fiction authors do you like?

indough

i think he is good at creating great ideas for stories and he is a master of building characters but i would concede that sometimes the plot suffers a little as a result of his almost over-emphasis on characterization

storm2811

Wouldn't be a huge fan,only read a few books,but read IT a while ago..
Scared the crap outta me!Really stuck in my head anyway:p

Plan on reading some of his other stuff soon,the house is full of his books but I've only read 3 or 4 max!

Spiritoftheseventies

sxt wrote: »

Have you read Pet Semetary?-Not one of his most popular books.but one of his best in my opinion-lighthearted,funny,forboding, and very macabre. One of his books that you an re read and get a completely differnent experience from the book.

May read that one again. Its been years since I have anything of his tbh

daveyboy_1ie

King's masterpiece is the 'The Stand' and I have read it probably a half dozen times over the last twenty years. Loved it and always will

The beauty of King is you can read all his novels as stand alone and like some and not like others etc., but until you read the Dark Tower series you don't realise that most of his books are meant to be interconnected and play varying degress of his version of 'middle earth'. Roland of Gilead is my favourite charector from all his books and through him you realise that most of his works take place in alternative timelines to our own and some overlap. My only regret is I have read all his novels (and other books) now and have to wait for the next one, thankfully I only started to read his works when I was 14 and by then he had most of his great novels already printed. Still the journey has been great so far

Spiritoftheseventies

Yeah the Stand was a good book but still think overall the Shining would get the nod. And again differenet seasons deserves special mention in that he explored other genres.
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption was very well written.

ncmc

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

you can get a dark tower box set with the first 4 books for good prices online.

Hey guys nearly finsihed book 4 of the dark tower , just wondering for those who have read it is it good to push on to book 5 or give it a break and come back to it.
I think book 4 is brilliant and dont want to be let down pushing on to the next one ??

Book 4 was my favourite of the Dark Series as well, beautifully written, really gives depth to Rolands character. Up until that, I think he was a bit of a Clint Eastwood caricature. Book 5 is enjoyable, not as good as the previous 4, but definitly worth reading. Book 6 is poor, I feel SK became very self indulgent and actually

writes himself into the book as a major character

I only have the last book left to read, I am nearly reluctant to read it, because I don't want to have to say goodbye to these characters and also because I have heard the ending is poor and i'm hoping that won't ruin my impression of the whole series.

On balance though, if you enjoyed the first 4, definitly carry on and read the rest.

For me, my favourite King books are:
1) The Stand (just read it again for the third time)
2) The Dark Tower Series
3) Pet Semetary
4) Needful Things
5) The Long Walk.

The only thing books of his I really couldn't stomach were Dreamcatcher and Tommyknockers.

Spiritoftheseventies

ncmc wrote: »

Book 4 was my favourite of the Dark Series as well, beautifully written, really gives depth to Rolands character. Up until that, I think he was a bit of a Clint Eastwood caricature. Book 5 is enjoyable, not as good as the previous 4, but definitly worth reading. Book 6 is poor, I feel SK became very self indulgent and actually

writes himself into the book as a major character

I only have the last book left to read, I am nearly reluctant to read it, because I don't want to have to say goodbye to these characters and also because I have heard the ending is poor and i'm hoping that won't ruin my impression of the whole series.

On balance though, if you enjoyed the first 4, definitly carry on and read the rest.

For me, my favourite King books are:
1) The Stand (just read it again for the third time)
2) The Dark Tower Series
3) Pet Semetary
4) Needful Things
5) The Long Walk.

The only thing books of his I really couldn't stomach were Dreamcatcher and Tommyknockers.

I heard that Lost borrowed a bit from the Dark Tower. Any truth to that?

Eoin

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

I heard that Lost borrowed a bit from the Dark Tower. Any truth to that?

Check out the Lost forum - there are loads of references to various Stephen King books in Lost; apparently the writers are massive fans. In fact, this page here has a lot of info.

bp1989

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

I remember reading Misery, and I found it scarier than the film :eek:

Reading it at the moment, my first SK novel. To be honest I'm slightly underwhelmed, I expected better from it. That said, it is far more gruesome than the movie, like when

Annie mows over the officer's head

(just at that part now) or

when she hobbles

Paul!

And I can imagine it's going to get a hell of a lot worse!

sxt

sxt wrote: »

Have you read Pet Semetary?-Not one of his most popular books.but one of his best in my opinion-lighthearted,funny,forboding, and very macabre. One of his books that you an re read and get a completely differnent experience from the book.

I meant to say light hearted and funny in places,but very forboding and very macabre otherwise.That makes more sense.

sxt

dr gonzo wrote: »

I think he means that SK is very imaginative but not a great writer, at least thats what i think he means because thats how i feel about what ive read of SK so far. For such a famous author ive been completely underwhelmed by nearly everything of his ive read. In fact a bunch of them i thought were pure sh1te like Pet Semetary and Cell.

In saying that i havent read nearly enough of his stuff to speak about him as an author in general. A lot of you are saying that IT is great, would that be representative of his best work? because if thats the case ill read that one before i make up my mind.

How come you keep reading his books ,"constant reader" ... Which ones did you like the most/least worst?

Mr. Presentable

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

I heard that Lost borrowed a bit from the Dark Tower. Any truth to that?

If they borrowed from Dark Tower, when will they be giving it back? Stole, is the word.

dr gonzo

eoin wrote: »

The Stand is probably considered his best book by a lot of fans. But if you thought Pet Semetary was "pure sh1te", I'm not sure you'll get much out of any of his books.

Incidentally, what horror or even fiction authors do you like?

Yeh you may be right, im probably not his targeted demographic because i dont read much horror stuff, not that im adversed to it or anything. As for authors, thats a long list. George Orwell, George MacDonald Fraser, Neil Gaiman, Raymond Chandler and many more.

sxt wrote: »

How come you keep reading his books ,"constant reader" ... Which ones did you like the most/least worst?

I started with the Shining which i thought was fantastic, i did find some of his writing techniques annoying even then but the atmosphere of the story far outweighed them. As i got into some of other books with what i found to be lesser stories his quirks really started to get on my nerves and i sort of gave up then but as i said earlier if i was just reading the wrong stuff im willing to give Mr. King another chance.

The_Drums

I think my first SK book was Firestarter, which I loved, and then Christine which scared the hell out of me.
The major ones - Pet Sematary, The Shining, The Tommy-Knockers, Cujo (especially Cujo), Salem's Lot (I haven't gotten round to The Stand yet) - ended up making me cry at the end rather than feeling terrified. But of course, terror is a central reaction to those books!
I love his shorter stories, like Children of the Corn in Graveyard Shift and N. from Just After Sunset.
Speaking of Just After Sunset, some of those stories were amazing in the sense that they were classic King - Everything's Eventual didn't do it for me in that respect!
I must get a copy of Under The Dome this summer...

Dudess

The only one I've read is Carrie and I absolutely love it. He really did a good job of getting into the teenage girl's mind.

Linguo

I've been reading SK since I was 13 and I probably always will! I got Under the Dome at Christmas from my lovely boyfriend as I was dying to read it. It's interesting but I think it's overly long. I would HIGHLY recommend everyone try Duma Key though, it's the best book of his I've read in a long time.:)

indough

Dudess wrote: »

The only one I've read is Carrie and I absolutely love it. He really did a good job of getting into the teenage girl's mind.

i believe that was with a lot of help from his wife, no kidding even thoug it sounds like a joke, if she hadnt have supported him during his writing of that book he may have ended up teaching full time and we'd have missed out on some great books (and a few not so great ones)

sxt

I was in Chapters at lunch time and they had the last 3 books in the dark tower series,It,Misery,bag of bones(really liked that one) and half dozens others ,mainly more recent books for 4.99

Eoin

indough wrote: »

i believe that was with a lot of help from his wife, no kidding even thoug it sounds like a joke, if she hadnt have supported him during his writing of that book he may have ended up teaching full time and we'd have missed out on some great books (and a few not so great ones)

I could believe that; I think he's said he can find it hard writing from a woman's perspective.

fleeflyfloflum

Hey,

I just read the Stand and I thought it was really good, a bit draggy in places and I liked the beginning bits more than the end. I'm wondering what should I read next by him, any suggestions?

Thanks.

sxt

I think you should read them in order of size ,' IT ' is next for you

--Kaiser--

I have just finished the 'Compete and Unabridged' version of The Stand after hearing an awful lot about it (masterpiece, best book ever etc.) and was a little disappointed. So much of it seems rambling and inconsequential, he spends so long building up the characters and their mostly insignificant and unremarkable life stories then

when all the good characters reach Boulder a lot of the story is taken up with trying to build a society out of the ashes of the holocaust

, which I found frankly boring, and

when the actual confrontation between good and evil occurs it seems very rushed

and it's followed by a drawn out, pointless, anti-climax.

I am going to try to find the original version (about half the length) and see if it reads better than the behemoth that I read. For me, The Shining is still the best book of his that I have encountered.

Linguo

I love The Stand but I agree that some parts are drawn out and I always find the first half of the book the most interesting! I would definitely suggest you read the shorter version and see what you think!

pavb2

I,m at about page 900 at moment & there doesn't really seem to have been a lot happen. Still it is different

Pittens

I think King is at his best in shorter stories. Carrie and Misery, and Pet Cemetry.